Slashdot Mirror
Examining Presidential Candidates' Tech Agendas
Aaron Ricadela writes to mention that BusinessWeek is taking a look at the tech agendas for several presidential candidates. The amount of attention being paid to Silicon Valley especially is unprecedented with the computer industry citing contributions of $2.2 million up from just $1.2 million in the first six months of the 2004 and 2000 primary campaigns. "So even while the general election is likely to be dominated by the war in Iraq, the continued threat of terrorism, and economic issues, candidates have staked out early positions on topics dear to the tech industry, including increasing federal spending on research and development, allowing more highly educated foreign workers into the country, widening the availability of high-speed Internet service to create new markets for hardware and online services, and improving the state of U.S. math and science education."
I hope one of their goals is to get bigger tubes for this new "inter-web" thing.
I hear it could be big.
I for one would be more than happy to give up my Internet connexion so Iraqis/Haitians/everyone else can have some food on their table. Are any candidates actually addressing Human Needs?
Not that such a thing would ever be meaningfully implemented anyway, but I can't imagine the second half of that *helping* research.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Gets twisted to mean "Corporate Tech Industry" instead of mere "Tech Industry" when money is involved. More H-1b visas only helps those hiring techies, it depresses the wages of the techies themselves, for instance. And of course, they look towards more closed source options as well- you don't see any of this money trying to provide policy for alternative energy or open source projects.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
...Ron Paul gets ignored by the media.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
i find it interesting that Former Senator Mike Gravel was not mentioned in TFA. Although he's far from a mainstream candidate (much to my chagrin), he's been the oevrall biggest supporter of net neutrality among the candidates. From his official platform:
/dev/null
Net Neutrality aims to keep the Internet free from large companies who are using their networks to limit the amount of websites their customers can view, and the speed at which they can view them. Examples range from, being forced to use the search engines your Internet Service Providers (ISP), only being able to view streaming videos that your ISP deems acceptable, and charging a website an extra fee to maintain the usual connection speed. Senator Gravel guarantees a free and open Internet with no restricted access to any site, for any reason. He will do this by supporting legislation and regulation that keeps you in control of your Internet usage. Intelligent replies welcome, redirect flames to
Why should political aspirants have prejudicial tech inclinations? I look forward to a future of impartial leaders that give unfamiliar issues equal weight relying on subject matter experts from all sides. Sound, informed decisions without prejudice.
Unless they want to replace all government machines with Ubuntu- then they already got my vote.
1. Suck up to the RIAA/MPAA.
2. Suck up to the large tech firms.
3. Make meaningless promises to support "the greater interests of the public with regards to technological issues".
4. "Think of the children!" to restrict our freedoms further.
3. Rake in the campaign contributions for next term while screwing America in the present.
If the Democrats win, we'll be living like Star Trek on January 21, 2009. If the Republicans win, we'll all instantly forget that fire and the wheel ever existed on that date.
Get a clue, and cut it out with the rampant unsubstantiated FUD.
As a Canadian I know many former colleagues who are now working in the US on H1B's, and know even more who have returned to Canada (for one reason or another) after working in the US for years in the same capacity. I also know a great number of work visa immigrants in my home country that I work closely with every single day.
All are highly educated individuals who are very capable in their work, and amongst the elite in their home countries. None come from sweatshop environments, in both the literal and metaphorical senses. All were very well paid in their home countries and enjoyed a quality of life similar to what we enjoy here.
All of the Canadian H1B's that went to the States that I know were brought in because of their unique skillsets, not because their salary demands were low. When they were hired their salaries were on par with their American colleagues, and none ever felt that they were there as cheap labour, as opposed to highly skilled additions to the company.
America is built upon these people, and thanks to you and your xenophobic brethren, it is being threatened. The hostility towards Muslims, minorities, and generally anyone out to "steal your job" is making the US plummet on the list of desirable places to move to. The vast majority of my colleagues who went to the USA have since returned, as economic conditions at home improve, and social conditions in your country worsen. Your great nation was built upon the importation of top-notch talent from around the world - Bohr, Einstein, all were immigrants. The openness and inclusiveness of America was what made it a shining beacon for the top people in the world to gather, and your little lighthouse has fallen into ill repair thanks to attitudes like yours.
Expect more inclusive countries to overtake yours soon - countries that embraces importing talent from overseas to strengthen themselves, instead being morbidly afraid of it.
My thoughts exactly.
Even though H1-Bs are supposed to be paid 'market rate', the net result is that bringing them into the country depresses market rates.
Good for business, bad for workers.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
So basically, just more "think of the children" pandering.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
After all, if the US didn't believe in getting the best scientist from other countries, Germany would have had the atom bomb first and Nasa would have been set back years.
Other technology votes by Paul: Source
Invexi - a Phoenix, AZ based web design and web development company.
sure he is
Like which countries? Any Western European one? Har, har, har. Japan? Guffaw... China? You've got to be kidding. I actually don't know of any country which really embraces importing talent from overseas. No, not even Canada.
I don't think too many Americans are upset over Canadian H1B or NAFTA visa workers. It's workers from third-world countries who are perceived to be the problem. Personally I'd rather they be working here than in their home country; if they're working here they have expenses more similar to mine, and therefore will not settle for nearly as low a salary as they would if they were working as outsourced talent in their home country.
Romney gave me the willies when listening to his Iowa Straw Poll speech. He advocated that every computer sold in the US be installed with government spyware to protect the children.
As usual Ron Paul isn't mentioned. IMHO he is right on that as long as the justice department does it's job in enforcing RICO statues and other laws barring ISP's from coercing their customers we should be fine. The reason our telecom system is a mess is the monopoly deals the congress entered into in the 1990s. Stop all federal funding of telecom projects and true competition should normalize the market. States are more than capable of funding basic telecom to rural areas.
bash-2.04$
bash-2.04$yes "Don't you hate dialup connections?"| write USERNAME
Canadian H1-B holders comprise a tiny fraction of the H1-B's issued. The big Indian outsourcing companies (Wipro, et. al.) grabbed about HALF of the available H1-B visas this year. And that doesn't comprise all of H1-B's that go to India. China is next on the list. Canada is hardly noticable.
In otherwords, the OP was speaking about MOST H1-B's.
All of the presidential candidates are trying to take us back to the dot-com bust as fast as possible, with the exception of Edwards. If you'll recall, it was in the years 2001-2003 that Congress increased the H1-B limit from the standard 65,000 to 115,000, for each of those years.
In fact, the reason why this is such a hot topic this year is because the visa's issued in 2001 are expiring this year. This is what you don't hear in the media. And the tech companies know very well that they have absolutely no chance of getting the Visa limit increased in a major election year.
So, if you want to relive the dot-com bust years, vote for Clinton or Obama. Edwards seems like the only one who isn't pwned by the high-tech lobby, and actually gives a damn for the average U.S. citizen.
Ron Paul is against Net Neutrality.
Where is the Undo button for my life? Not to mention the Esc key.
Oddly enough, I tend to think you have it backwards. Because our workers' political and economic lighthouse has gotten into such ill repair (real wage loss, especially when computed with non-core inflation; loss of social safety net; loss of political power for common people; etc.), a backlash against someone should hardly be unexpected. It is a shame that we always find the alien at fault rather than the corporate and political leaders who actually allowed this to happen, but when you see your own potential for economic advancement being washed away, you're not going to feel too happy about sharing what little you have with others.
That is all.
Why would anyone have to buy new wrenches? Cars have been metric for decades, even domestic makers use the metric system for their cars. Your fuel tanks are sized in litres, even if your owners manuals have the size in gallons.
:D
Products in the US often suffer from 'hidden metrication'. Altoids are sold in 50 gram tins, but then they are labelled as "1.76 ounces". Body wash is often in 700 or 900 mL sizes, but labelled as 23.7 or 30 ounces.
Buy Listerine lately? It's only available in 250 mL, 500 mL or 1 L sizes. What about a bottle of soda-pop? 2 L. Dental floss? 50 M. A light bulb? 60 watts. Start a car? The engine's displacement is in litres as well.
Metrication is already all over in the US, you just don't realise it. Oh, and your inch was redefined as precisely 25.4 mm, so you're already metric there too.
if the government prevented business from regulating the Net, then it would unfairly jeopardize their freedom...
Voted NO on allowing telephone monopolies to offer Internet access.
Does anyone else find this a little contradictory?
It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
When they were hired their salaries were on par with their American colleagues, and none ever felt that they were there as cheap labour, as opposed to highly skilled additions to the company.
Have you considered that they were depressing wages because the additional supply of labor drove down what they were being paid?
Your great nation was built upon the importation of top-notch talent from around the world - Bohr, Einstein, all were immigrants.
Not to mention Tesla.
H1Bs aren't about bringing the best and brightest. They're about increasing the supply of educated labor to drive down prices.
Einstein, Bohr, Tesla, et all were not brought here on "Worker" visas.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
So, I would be interested to see your comments on the lawfirms that give seminars on how to cheat the system to hire on H1B instead of hiring available local talent. You brush this off like its not a problem because a few Canadian friends of yours weren't part of the masses of cheap labor imported by companies doing illegal things to avoid hiring Americans.
Here is a question for you. What motivation does an American have to become a "highly skilled individual" when the tech sector has become so notorious for importing replacements and using the highly skilled individuals to train them on their way out the door.
Our shining beacon going out has precious little to do with being xenophobic. It has more to do with profit mongering whores doing sheisty things to make an extra buck. Incidentally, you even missed some big ones. Not to destroy your point but I would like to mention the guys like Einstein and Oppenheimer and such weren't here on H1B visas... You want to move here, join society, great, welcome to America, we are glad to have your contributions, you want to come here on a visa and ship your paycheck home, we have plenty of leeches that we can't deal with that are natives, we don't need more.
Personally I would rather take all the illegal immegrants that snuck across our borders and got jobs and are trying to integrate and be productive and give them all of the SSNs of the worthless welfare leeches that aren't immegrants. Then take those leeches and deport their asses instead.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
Do you think Valerie Lakey should have gone without top notch legal representation? That is the case that made his reputation representing a little girl who was disemboweled by a defective swimming pool drain-- and survived. Edwards has made a large fortune as a trial lawyer, but he has made most of it representing individual clients wronged by powerful interests with powerful legal representation. He is also the only wealthy candidate I know of who did it pretty much all on his own, starting life as one of the little people and rising by force of merit. He can chase my ambulance any day.
Voted NO on allowing telephone monopolies to offer Internet access.
Does anyone else find this a little contradictory? Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of 2001: Vote to pass a bill that would allow the four regional Bell telephone companies to enter the high-speed Internet access market via their long-distance connections whether or not they have allowed competitors into their local markets as required under the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The bill would allow the Bells to increase the fees they charge competitors for lines upgraded for broadband services from "wholesale rates" to "just and reasonable rates." It also would also allow the Bells to charge for giving competitors access to certain rights-of-way for broadband access. Certain FCC regulatory oversight would be maintained although the phone companies' high speed services would be exempted from regulation by the states.
You can't take the sky from me...
I think our entire immigration process is totally fucked. It absolutely should not take so long and so many backflips through flaming hoops to become a citizen. The real problem with illegals isn't that they are here, its that they are here and not paying taxes. I personally believe rather than building a fence, or arming guards, or any silly shit like that...we should just line up IRS workers along the border so they can hand out SSNs. "Welcome to America, here is your SSN, enjoy the services we have to offer, oh...and thank you in advance for paying your taxes."
:)
Remember kids. Illegally entering our country gets you little more than media attention and some rednecks yelling at you. Tax evasion and you are going to jail for a long long time. Enjoy your stay.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.